..

Oh dear. You've made the classic mistake of people who plan these
frequencies. What you are describing is a line. What we need is a
network. As soon as your journey involves a change, 4 tph is
inadequate on short-distance services. Even if both services are 4
tph, if you have a deadline you have to plan on a 15 minute delay at
the connection - in a journey where you might only spend 15 minutes
moving. This is not the way to compete with the car.




Fair point.

However my guess is that most people who catch a London-bound train at
Eltham are either going to a destination within walking distance of
London Bridge/Waterloo/Charing Cross/Cannon St or will continue their
journey by tube. The number who need to think about a connection to
eg Shepperton or Carshalton Beeches is probably fairly small. I don't
have any figures to back this up but if I'm right, improving the line
will be what most people need.

My main point though is there seems to be a tendency among transport
planners to give up on improving peak services to and from South-East
London and to fob people off with more off-peak services. Extra
off-peak services may be desirable (especially in the evening) but I
don't think are the top priority. What's really needed in the short
term is longer trains/platforms, in the medium term Thameslink 2000
and in the long term a new tube line.